Chinese trade with North Korea plunged by 50 percent last month

While China says they support a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, Beijing has resisted sanctions so harsh that they might cause widespread suffering or topple Kim's regime.

Two major Asian countries are criticizing the conference on North Korea set to take place in Vancouver next week, which is aimed at coordinating a response to Kim Jong Un's weapons program.

Tuesday's meeting in Vancouver will include foreign ministers from an interesting group of countries mainly based on 17 nations that fought together in the Korean War.

There have been growing concerns over the last six months about North Korea's nuclear and ballistic-missile capabilities.

"In terms of how big of an impact it (falling trade) had on North Korea, there was definitely impact because some of their products could only go to China while others could only be imported from China", said Chen Fengying, an economics expert at state-backed China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

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Canada and the United States are co-hosting the meeting in Vancouver on January 16 to demonstrate global solidarity against North Korea's nuclear and missile tests. We'll be discussing sanctions ...

Yet without Russian Federation and China, both of which have been involved in the so-called Six-Party Talks aimed at finding a peaceful resolution to North Korea's nuclear program, it's unclear what the Vancouver meeting can really achieve.

"It is simply not possible to have meaningful outcome without China and/or Russian Federation at the table when it comes to dealing with crisis on the Korean peninsula".